LIGHTING
SOFT LIGHTS
WHEN SIZE REALLYMATTERS Large lights provide soft illumination, which is a key tool in creating good-looking films M astering lighting is an often confusing area for many filmmakers, with a glut of different kit you can buy and lots WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
of techniques to master. One of the most crucial things to understand about light is that large light sources provide softer, more flattering illumination. This makes them ideal for shooting fashion or talking head-type shots, or for washing a room set with light – or for boosting daylight on a cloudy day. Smaller or more focused lights like HMIs or fresnel LEDs give harder, crisp light that’s good for backgrounds, hair lights or separation lights. And the output from small light sources can be made softer by adding some diffusion. The bigger the better. There’s just no real replacement for size. A large light source – which of course can be the light from a small light source shone through a large diffuser panel or bounced off a wall or ceiling – will always be softer. Creating soft light at will is an essential part of every professional’s arsenal of tricks. Large lights like LED light banks are wonderful at providing soft, even illumination. Especially when used close up to the subject. Move them away and their size relative to the subject becomes smaller, so the light becomes relatively harder. It’s also less intense, which can be an issue. Hot lights such as tungsten and HMI lights were once the most popular hard lights as they are quiet. But to make them soft, you need to bounce them or shine through a large surface. Whereas the most popular soft lights were always banks of large fluorescent tubes. The market leader for these is Kino Flo – and many people refer to all lights of this type as Kinos. Nowadays, LEDs tend to dominate as they are bright, small, silent and can be often adjusted to provide different colours. They also come in all shapes and sizes,
IMAGES LEDs dominate the lighting market, with the Kino Diva (below) a popular choice for soft lighting
from large banks to rollable and foldable mats that you can fix anywhere or use inside softboxes. Even Kino now has what are effectively LED tube versions of the lights, which can be controlled remotely, tuned via an app, have RGB light control and various modifiers, such as grids, softboxes and barn doors. Many LED video lights can have a colour temperature dialled in, even to the extent of changing colours through the whole RGB colour spectrum.
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